AbleCommerce Shopping Cart Software

Is there a way to restrict some products/items from being shipped to some zones?

The scenario is that we have these jewelry products that are drop-shipped by a different vendor. That vendor does not ship to all international locations. How can I restrict these particular products on our website from being available for shipment to areas outside of our vendor's permissible regions?

The only way to do it is to assign those products to a new warehouse just for the different vendor. Then create shipping methods and zones specific for that vendor (i.e. assigned only to that new warehouse).

The downside is shoppers won't know if it's possible to ship to the address they want until they've reached all the way into page 2 of checkout. All they'll see is 'No shipping methods available for the selected destination' which isn't incredibly intuitive.